This sensory gym for those with disabilities is the first in the Fox Valley

NEENAH - On March 11, The Sensory Club Neenah officially opened its doors at 976 American Drive, in Suite 8, making it the first open-concept sensory gym and multi-sensory environment for individuals with disabilities in the Fox Valley.

Tammy Ross, an occupational therapist, and her husband Scott Ross, a director in the senior living care field, wanted to open The Sensory Club Neenah to help individuals like their son, who is diagnosed with autism.

"I'm a mom of a child that was diagnosed with autism when he was eight years old, and at that time, even though I was an (occupational therapist), I didn't have access to the types of equipment that I knew that he would benefit from," Tammy said.

Tammy also liked the flexibility that came with the multi-sensory environment.

"Over the years, I've seen a lot of different types of clinics, but I didn't want to actually be restricted to just doing occupational therapy," Tammy said. "So when we were introduced to The Sensory Club, I did the research and it looked exactly like what I had wanted to do originally."

With locations in Green Bay and Pewaukee, Tammy and Scott were more inspired to bring a third Wisconsin location to Neenah.

What is The Sensory Club?

The Sensory Club started in Wisconsin in 2016 after founder Brian Hall, his friend and her autistic son were having trouble finding a safe place to play indoors.

When Hall was unable to find a location specifically for people with special needs, he decided to open one of his own.

Seven years later, The Sensory Club has three Wisconsin locations, plus one in Denver, Colorado, and another opening soon in Tennessee.

The club serves individuals of all ages and disabilities.

The Sensory Club Neenah, just like other locations, will offer range of therapeutic sensory-motor equipment and a private "state-of-the-art" multi-sensory environment room. According to Tammy, the sensory gym will have climbing structures, slides, a ball pool, trampolines, swings, a zipline, monkey bars and more.

The multi-sensory environment room will be a fully interactive and immersive room, with fiber optic light curtains, bubble tubes, interactive panels, a projector and a Vibroacoustic sound chair.

"All of that is operated off of a system called 'Sensory Magic', and in that system there will be preloaded programs that will control all of the equipment in the room," Tammy said.

The multi-sensory environment room is designed to help those who struggle with control over their bodies or environments.

"It's very hard for these individuals to feel in control and so they try to control their environment around them, and often it's in a very unhealthy way," Tammy said. "So being able to have access to this room, to be able to have control over that environment, can actually help with anxiety. It can help with their sensory processing and being able to engage better."

The Sensory Club is a member-based gym with a monthly fee. Memberships grant access to everything in the club, including participation in groups and special activities. Single memberships are $49 a month, doubles are $69 and family packages are $89.

Annual memberships are also available.

How will The Sensory Club improve the community?

Tammy and Scott wanted to bring a Sensory Club to Neenah because of the lack of access to similar clubs in the area.

"My goal is to be able to provide access," Tammy said. "It gets really expensive when you start purchasing that kind of equipment yourself and for a lot of families, they just don't have the access. They might live in a home that doesn't have a doesn't have a basement or somewhere where they can set up the sensory space."

They also hope to provide a sense of safety for the members of the gym.

"We call it a club because, oftentimes, the children with disabilities don't have a sense of community, they're often ostracized and bullied in schools, we went through that with our son," Scott said. "So besides the therapeutic value of the equipment in there, we want them to have a place they can come, they can be welcomed, they can have fun and they can build relationships that might be more difficult to them in other settings."

Members can visit The Sensory Club from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.

Reach Jelissa Burns at 920-226-4241 or jburns1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @burns_jelissa or on Instagram at burns_jelissa.